An engaging and exhaustive look at Zionism and Judaism through a fictional lens.
A Jewish family explores their faith in Gale’s novel.
Patriarch Rabbi Levin, the head of the Rodef Tzedek synagogue in New York City, prepares for a Kristallnacht observance and, later, a seder. His son, Greg, is studying German and is visiting concentration camps in Germany while living in Berlin. Rabbi Levin’s daughter Bracha’s journey is explored in more detail as she studies Arabic in Israel and confronts the Israeli-Palestinian conflict head-on. There is not much of a conventional plot; the story simply observes the Levin family as they navigate the intersection of their faith with real-world issues, such as Bracha’s fight for the rights of Palestinians even as she is surrounded by advocates of Zionism and discussing nationalism with the friends she meets in Israel. Rabbi Levin oversees bat mitzvahs in Manhattan and attempts to get the synagogue involved in “social action projects.” Later, Rabbi Levin and his wife, Tova, travel to Israel to visit Bracha. The novel feels thoroughly researched, and the author makes a concerted effort to showcase the varying opinions regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, the author’s tendency to meticulously contextualize nearly every conversation between the characters with historical information and exposition often leads to dialogue that, while informative, reads as cluttered and unrealistic. For example, when Rabbi Levin is speaking to a friend, he says, “In 1954, in the landmark case of Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, the Supreme Court ruled that separate was inherently unequal…Through white flight, red-lining, blockbusting, and gentrification, also known as urban renewal…” These are important issues to examine through fiction, but the execution could flow better and feel less like the characters are speaking in formal essays. Another (albeit smaller) problem is the shifting chronology, which can be a bit confusing. Despite these issues, Gale’s story is worthy and takes great pains to explore Judaism and Zionism in a comprehensive and honest way.
An engaging and exhaustive look at Zionism and Judaism through a fictional lens.Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9798887937595
Page Count: 418
Publisher: Page Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
Great crime fiction.
An apparent suicide threatens to destroy an Irish farm town in the final volume of French’s Cal Hooper trilogy.
In the fictional western Ireland townland of Ardnakelty, “there’s a girl going after missing.” Soon young Rachel Holohan is found dead in the river. Shortly before, she had stopped at Lena Dunne’s home, and nothing had seemed amiss. The medical examiner determines she’d swallowed antifreeze, and he presumes she then fell from a bridge into the water. The medical examiner and the town agree she’d died by suicide. But there is far more to the plot: 16-year-old Trey Reddy thinks Tommy Moynihan murdered Rachel. Moynihan doles out favors and punishments to the local townsfolk, who know it’s best not to cross him. Now rumors spread that Moynihan wants land and has a secret plan to forcibly buy up parcels from the locals. A factory will be built, or a great big data center, or who knows what. If Tommy’s son, Eugene, can get elected to the local council, then compulsory purchase orders for land will follow, and the farms will disappear. Eugene, who’d been romantically involved with Rachel, is wonderfully described as “on the weedy edge of good-looking” and just fine as long as you “don’t have high expectations in the way of chins.” Lena is engaged to the American Cal Hooper, an ex-cop turned woodworker. They are “more or less raising” Trey, and these three core characters are drawn into the mystery of Rachel’s death and may have to face the looming clouds of civilizational change for Ardnakelty. Lena is chastised for “asking your wee questions all round the townland,” and Trey wants to quit school, against Cal’s advice. Finally, the story’s best line: “You can’t go killing people just because they deserve it.”
Great crime fiction.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593493465
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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